Dillinger v. Caterpillar, Inc.
| Decision Date | 01 April 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-3308,91-3308 |
| Parties | Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 13,068 Alvin DILLINGER, Appellant, v. CATERPILLAR, INC., a Delaware Corporation; Wheeler Machinery Company, Inc., a Utah Corporation. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Bruce J. Phillips (argued), Gilardi & Cooper, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellant.
Robert S. Grigsby (argued), Curt Vazquez, Cohen & Grigsby, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellees.
Before: BECKER, GREENBERG, and ALITO, Circuit Judges.
Appellant, Alvin Dillinger ("Dillinger"), a former truck driver, commenced this strict products liability proceeding against appellee, Caterpillar, Inc., in the Court of Common Pleas, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, for injuries he suffered while driving a large construction vehicle manufactured by Caterpillar. 1 Caterpillar removed the action to the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on March 14, 1990, based on diversity of citizenship and the requisite jurisdictional amount. After a six-day trial, the jury found in favor of Caterpillar, by its negative answer to a special interrogatory asking whether Dillinger proved by a preponderance of the evidence that the truck "was defective, that it was defective when it left the defendant's control, and that the defect was a substantial factor in bringing about some injuries to plaintiff." 2
Dillinger's appeal embodies two fundamental assertions. First, he contends that the district court should not have admitted evidence that he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, even for the limited purpose of reducing his damages. Second, Dillinger argues that the court should not have permitted Caterpillar to argue that his own conduct caused his injuries because such evidence in this case is tantamount to contributory negligence inadmissible under Pennsylvania law in a products liability case. We agree with Dillinger's assertions, and we will reverse the judgment of the district court and remand for a new trial.
From August, 1987 until February 16, 1988, Dillinger worked as a driver of a Caterpillar 773 ("the 773"), a 50-ton-capacity dumpster, for S.J. Groves & Son at the site of the Midfield Terminal at the Pittsburgh Airport. Dillinger reported for his ten-hour shift between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on February 15, 1988, and drove the 773 without incident until 4:00 a.m. At that time, Dillinger was proceeding fully loaded up a haul road with a grade of 7%. 3 When he had driven the truck about three-quarters of the way up the hill toward the dumping area, the transmission failed and stopped pulling the truck and, as a result, the engine stalled.
When the engine stalled the power steering stopped working and the truck began to roll down the hill. Accordingly, Dillinger applied the foot brake but, because he had disengaged the front brake due to wintery conditions, he depended upon the rear brake alone to halt the truck. 4
Dillinger thought the foot pedal was functioning normally when he depressed it because he could feel air in the brake but the truck nevertheless continued to roll down the hill. 5 Accordingly, Dillinger continued As the truck continued to roll backwards, Dillinger could not see anything to the rear because it was dark and there was no lighting in the area. He contemplated jumping out of the truck, but decided that the cab, which was ten feet off the ground, was too high for a safe jump. He therefore clutched the steering wheel as the truck rolled backwards over a high embankment, cartwheeled and came to a rest on the passenger side at the bottom of the embankment. Dillinger was found outside the truck on his back, apparently having gone through the windshield. Dillinger was not wearing the available lap belt at the time of the accident and unfortunately he was severely injured.
to apply the brake pedal, as he believed the truck was sliding due to road conditions and not brake failure. As he applied the brake, he continued to feel air pressure and none of the truck's systems indicating a loss of air in the brakes were activated. Yet the brake did not stop the truck
Within hours of the accident, Dennis McHattie, Groves' general superintendent, took a video of the accident site and the truck. John Druggan, lead mechanic at Groves, also examined the truck just after the accident. At that time Druggan and John Robbins, a foreman on the job, saw a line of hydraulic fluid on the road leading up the hill. Later, the truck was towed to the repair area where Druggan's mechanics worked on it and where he observed that four of the hydraulic hoses on the truck had been damaged.
In addition to McHattie's and Druggan's investigation, two employees of Beckwith Machinery Company, the local Caterpillar dealer, examined the accident site and wrote a report summarizing their observations and conclusions. In the report, they indicated that the hydraulic lines of the truck appeared to have been damaged while the truck was proceeding up the hill and not as a result of the accident itself. 6
Dillinger alleges that the 773 had a design defect which resulted in the accident. According to him, the loss of fluid from the hydraulic hoses, particularly the fourth hose that carries hydraulic fluid from the rear brake roto chamber to the rear brake, caused the brake failure. Dillinger asserts that the truck should have been designed adequately to safeguard the hoses and to alert the driver to a loss of hydraulic fluid in the event of hose damage.
Kai Baumann, Dillinger's expert, testified in support of Dillinger's assertion that the 773 was defective. After examining an exemplar truck with Druggan, Baumann concluded that the 773 either ran over a sharp object or some sharp object shot upward from one of the truck tires as the truck proceeded up the hill and damaged the four hoses. As a result, the hydraulic fluid stopped flowing to the rear brakes and to the transmission causing the brake and transmission failure. In Baumann's view, the truck should have been equipped with a "belly pan," similar to the pan on the underside of the truck engine, to protect the hoses. In addition, the truck should have had a visual or audible warning system to alert the truck driver that hydraulic fluid was not flowing to the brakes; the 773 was equipped with a similar system that alerts the driver to a loss of air in the brakes. 7 Finally, Baumann observed that the operator's manual did not inform the driver that, if the fluid in the hydraulic hoses ceased to flow properly, this would trigger an undetectable loss of brake power.
Caterpillar conceded that the 773 was not equipped with a system to alert the driver to a loss of hydraulic fluid and it does not contend in its brief that the hoses were not damaged and thus did not cause the loss of hydraulic fluid as Dillinger asserts. Furthermore, the experts unanimously agreed that the foot pedal would feel normal in the event of a loss of hydraulic fluid. However, Caterpillar contended that the truck In support of these assertions, Caterpillar's experts testified that the truck was equipped with adequate brake safety systems as it had four alternative means of braking the truck supplementary to the primary rear brake operated by the foot pedal. First, the 773 was equipped with front brakes that Dillinger had disengaged because of the road conditions. Second, the truck had a hand-operated parking or emergency brake to the right of the driver's seat. 8 Third, the truck was equipped with a hand-operated "retarder" braking system. Fourth, the truck had an emergency brake which, when pulled, activates all the other braking systems. Caterpillar's experts asserted that, if Dillinger had applied any of these brakes, he would have prevented the truck from rolling backwards. The truck was also equipped with an emergency steering system which functions even if the engine is not running. 9
was not defectively designed and attacked Dillinger's experience and conduct in an effort to establish that his conduct, not a defect in the design of the 773, caused his injuries.
Caterpillar's experts also stated that they believed that the hydraulic hose for the rear brake was adequately protected by the other hoses located between the hydraulic hose and the roadway. In their view, the front axle was effective in stopping large objects run over by the truck, and a belly pan would interfere with a mechanic's ability to check the hoses for leaks. They further contended that a warning system as suggested by Dillinger's expert would not be practical.
Finally, in support of Caterpillar's contention that Dillinger's conduct, and not a defect in the truck, caused his injuries, Caterpillar asserted that Dillinger was inexperienced in driving the 773, as he had driven that truck for only six months and had not read the operators manual; 10 Dillinger did not regularly test the emergency braking system; and Dillinger should have known that the truck was not sliding because the road was not icy and because the truck bumped along the surface of the crushed rock and dirt as it rolled backwards.
Ultimately the jury returned a verdict for Caterpillar, concluding either that the truck was not defective, or that any defect did not constitute a substantial factor in bringing about some of Dillinger's injuries. This appeal followed.
The propriety of the district court's admission of evidence concerning Dillinger's non-use of the available seat belt to mitigate his damages is a question of Pennsylvania law. 11 Accordingly, our
review is plenary. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee v. Insurance Co. of North America, 724 F.2d 369, 371 (3d Cir.1983).
The district court permitted...
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